64º North

Situated between 63ºN and 67ºN lies the world’s Northernmost sovereign capital city – Reykjavik. Home to a mere 120,000 people (about the same as Bridgetown, Barbados) this is not your typical bustling metropolis.

Although tourism is becoming increasingly significant in the country (and with it the associated construction boom) Iceland is still essentially a fish-driven economy. You won’t find towering skyscrapers or 24 hour metro systems here – but what you will find is a city of charm, history and great food.

Iceland is a unique European country, essentially isolated for years until its strategic importance towards the end of World War 2 led to the US building the main airport at Keflavik. This made it easier to get to and from Iceland and from there we have arrived where we are today. It still feels like a lot of catching up needs to be done, and is being done, to bring Iceland into the 21^st Century.

In some respects though there are a lot of Icelandic qualities that we should be striving for ourselves; 99% of their power comes from Geothermal or Hydroelectric sources and nothing is wasted. The steam that drives the turbines will end up being used for your daily shower (complete with aroma of sulphur!) while the only litter we saw on the trip came from lazy tourists.

With only 330,000 people in the country there is still a real sense of community here too – everything is done for the benefit of the masses and the Icelanders have a real sense of pride in what they believe is the fairest democracy on the planet.

Reykjavik itself is relatively small, nestled on the bay and winding its way slowly up towards the geothermal spas that are now mostly redundant. There are a couple of decent museums (the Maritime Museum is a must for those with an interest in fishing and history) but essentially you can probably walk around the main tourist area it in a day.

Downtown Reykjavik from the cathedral

However, there are a few things slightly out of the centre that might be worth your attention (particularly in the summer months). The Pearl observation deck and Botanical Gardens are two that spring to mind as being “on our list for next time”.

When judging most capital cities I tend to stay with the confines of the city rather than stray out – but in this case I think it is difficult to look at Reykjavik without considering what is easily within your reach from the city centre base.

No doubt tourism has exploded in the last 5 to 10 years. There are endless companies offering endless different tours – from a few hours up to a full week in a cabin. We managed to get ourselves onto two of the most popular day tours – the Golden Circle and the South Shore.

I don’t want to go into too much detail as to what was on the tours – other than to say that they are both definitely worth it. The scenery on both is stunning but interestingly varied, it’s definitely not a case of doing the same thing twice at two different parts of the island.

The Golden Circle takes in gorgeous waterfalls, the geothermal geysers at Geysir (including the fourth biggest in the world which erupts every 5 minutes or so) and some stunning rift valley scenery with views to die for. The South Shore is longer but you encounter glaciers, more waterfalls, volcanoes, black sand beaches and a really nice little folk museum on the way.

Waterfall at Faxi

One thing I would recommend is to go with a slightly smaller tour company that does tours of maybe 10-15 people. There is a lot to get round and if you are waiting at every stop while the guide rounds up 50-60 people then it can get a bit draining and tiring.

Glacier at Myrdalsjokull

We didn’t manage to get to see the Northern Lights or go to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa for various reasons but that just gives us more reason to come back again! That and the stunning varied scenery which I can’t wait to see in summer!

After a long day sight-seeing the last thing you want is to struggle for food options. Thankfully Reykjavik is one of the greatest food cities I have ever been in – though you do pay for the privilege. A typical 3 course meal at a good restaurant with a bottle of wine is £100 for two people, and there don’t appear to be any real budget options either!

But the food is stunning. You can expect local fish and meat all cooked to absolute perfection. Over the course of the week we had (between us) Icelandic lamb, horse tenderloin, roasted duck, lobster, pork belly, shrimp risotto, octopus, squid, rotten shark (not as bad as it sounds, though not everyone would agree!), tuna and more that I can’t even remember.

Every single dish was cooked perfectly and I challenge anyone not to fall in love with the food. They cook it their way (none of this “how would you like it cooked”? malarkey) and I’ve not eaten so well in a long, long time. If I was to recommend anything I’d say to check out the lamb and the horse (yes horse!). I haven’t seen two dishes cooked as well for a while, stunning.

Reykjavik feels like a city of two halves though – if you’ll allow me to explain. Daytime is tour guides and tourists (the majority of whom where certainly late 30s and above) whilst at night time the locals come out to play. They play hard, fast and not cheaply mind!

The city’s nightlife is growing very fast and you can find trendy bars (cocktail bars are a particular “new scene”) mingled in with local microbreweries and late night cafes where you can pick up a slab of cake and a hot drink to warm the fingers up.

Most Icelanders don’t come out to drink until gone midnight (preferring home drinking at cheaper prices) but most clubs are open until the wee hours of the morning. I suspect in summer the only two hours a night of darkness are spent drinking in a club somewhere.

Overall

Reykjavik has long been on my list of must-see capitals and it didn’t disappoint. While the city itself is small, it is growing and evolving into a modern capital without losing too much of the charm which draws people here in the first place.

The food and nightlife is fantastic (but expensive) and the abundant options for exploring the island make this a very good destination for a week or so. We’ll definitely be returning again in the summer months as it is supposed to be a completely different city then and different options open themselves up.

I’m not sure I’d recommend a city break here simply as there isn’t much to do in the city for more than a day and a couple of days isn’t enough to get out and explore properly. It’s not that it is a bad place for a weekend, just that it isn’t cheap to get there and I feel you wouldn’t get the value for money over a weekend compared to a Lisbon, London or Budapest for example.

Verdict: 4.5 stars out of 5

Small city itself but plenty to do on the island with the stunning sights and scenery. Fantastic food and drink and lovely people. Definitely should be on everybody's must-see list, and we'll be back for more.

Till next time,

DT

REVIEW: Neither here nor there by Bill Bryson

Travelling has always fascinated me, ever since I was young. Being born and growing up abroad will do that to you – it gives you a greater sense of awareness of the size and scale of the world. I didn’t return to the UK to live permanently until I was nearly 7, and by this time I had already seen the USA, Australia, Far East, Europe, The Pacific and South East Asia. That kind of travelling at a young age almost always a great desire to do more as you get older.

One thing I love almost as much as travelling is reading about other people’s travels. I love reading and hearing other people’s opinions of places I’ve been to – but I also love seeing new places and different takes on things. Not everyone travels for the same reason and hence not everyone experiences the same things at the same places. This variety has always held an interest for me.

Bill Bryson is one of my favourite travel writers for a number of reasons.

I love his style of travelling first and foremost. I’m very much what I would call a “big ticket planner”. I like to have the big items like travel and accommodation sorted in advance. Part of this is due to the fact that, whilst I’m not exactly travelling on a shoestring, I don’t usually have the funds or time to risk pitching up somewhere and not being able to find anything except a £200pn room and a £1000 flight home!! I am then a bit freer to explore the sights of somewhere, safe in the knowledge I know where I am sleeping and where I’ll be heading next.

Bryson doesn’t do this. He has a vague plan but he travels very much by the seat of his pants. Or seems to at least. Neither here nor there was written in the early 1990s and since then there has been an explosion of backpacking and the like, maybe that was the way people travelled back then and it simply doesn’t happen that much anymore.

Regardless, his travel style allows him to see so much more than the sights of a place – he can really get under the skin and understand how places tick. The culture and the traditions of a place are often even more fascinating than towering domes, huge gorges or architectural masterpieces.

This comes across in his writing style too. I find my travel reviews tend to be very factual when I read them back, Bryson’s ebb and flow and give you a real sense of what it was like being there – not just a list of what to do and not to do. It is, I think, a difficult skill to master and one I admire greatly and strive to emulate.

Neither here nor there follows Bryson as he recreates (in his 40s) a journey he made when he first arrived in Europe some twenty to thirty years previously. From the north of Sweden down through Europe to Istanbul he follows his nose as he makes his way around the diverse continent.

Part of the interest in this book is seeing how the different parts of the continent have evolved at different speeds. This book is probably 25 years old and yet, for example, Florence sounds pretty similar to how I remember it (though I enjoyed it more than Bryson evidently did)! Yet other places are unrecognisable compared to what they are now like.

The way Bryson shifts through the varying landscape, people, languages and cultures is very symptomatic of how Europe used to be. The Eurozone has, to some extent, created much more uniformity throughout the continent – yet this book harks back to the “good old days” of having to change currencies every time you crossed a border and having a passport full of stamps.

Maybe that is some of the appeal of this book, a bygone era unsaturated with the internet where if you wanted to see a place you had to go and see it. Nowadays you can drop a little man into a street and see exactly what the front door of your hotel looks like whereas 25 years ago you might turn up in a city and have no idea which country even you were in.

The end result, for me, is a joy. From the many anecdotes, some good and some bad, through some more sombre political and socio-economic commentaries this book has everything a good travel book should have. And by that I don’t mean a Rough Guide or a Lonely Planet (which have their merits I’ll grant you).

I mean a REAL travel book, a book actually about travelling the world and seeing the many sights and sounds it has to offer. Bryson does this better than anyone and, 25 years on, this is still funny, insightful, relevant and interesting. I can’t give much higher praise.

Verdict: Everything a travel book should be about. 5 stars of out 5

Till next time,

DT

REVIEW: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Got a nice spurt on in the first month with the old reading - unfortunately that means I've fallen behind with my reviews as a result. Swings and roundabouts eh? So without further ado, I managed to get around to reviewing Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

***SPOILERS***

I've always had a little bit of a soft spot for those books that are "superficially supernatural". By that I mean books which involve some kind of magic but still manage to retain a world or a universe which is essentially our own. "Hidden Worlds" I guess would be a good way of describing them. 

The most contemporary example of this would be the Harry Potter books, which layer a whole new world on top of the one we know and love - but in a way that makes you think, "it couldn't be, could it"? 

Don't get me wrong, I love sweeping epics and mounds of swords and sorcery. Sometimes a bit of intrigue and subtlety is no bad thing though. Rivers of London is one of those stories, set in a world that is at once familiar but slightly twisted at the same time. 

I thought I'd be lazy and quote the Wikipedia entry for this book - simply because it sums everything up pretty well without me having to do too much thinking!

The novel centres around the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the supernatural.

Peter Grant, having become the first English apprentice wizard in over seventy years, must immediately deal with two different but ultimately inter-related cases. In one he must find what is possessing ordinary people and turning them into vicious killers, and in the second he must broker a peace between the two warring gods of the River Thames

Does it work? Well, kind of. Sometimes it feels as though a bit too much is being attempted in one story - and I'm not sure the two strands are woven together as well as they could have been. Also, the plot seems to move with a strange sense of pace, it feels as though we are taking our time getting going and then rushing a bit towards the end. However, this is often the case with the first book of a new series and it's not by any stretch a poor book because of it.

I do love the style it is written in (first person with a nice helping of sarcasm) and the main characters are three dimensional enough to hold your attention through the story. Plus the twist in the tale is quite ingenious and there is plenty here which is different and clever enough to lift it above the crowd.

The balance between the mundane and the supernatural is portrayed nicely and the level of research, particularly into the geography and layout of London, deserves praise. This is a person who genuinely enjoys and cares about what he is writing and it shows. 

I'll definitely be reading the later books so there is obviously something about this one that has intrigued me. Certainly the world of Rivers of London is bigger than this single book so it will be interesting to see how Aaronovitch evolves his universe and the characters within it.

Overall this is no instant classic nor towering epic. But there is definitely enough here for an enjoyable read and to whet the appetite for what my be to come in the future.

Verdict: A decent enough read on its own but with the hint of more to come - 4 stars out of 5

Next on the reading list was Bill Bryson's adventures in Europe - a topic close to my heart with all my travels recently. Hopefully I'll cobble something together for that tomorrow, but then again I always say that!!

Till next time,
DT